Half-way through and hurting

Wednesday, 12, March, 2014

The first stats of today reveal footballing legend Alan Shearer retaining his pole position in the Sport Relief - Battle of the Backsides challenge, with a whopping 21,244 seats complete so far this week. Fellow competitor Robbie Savage is trailing behind at 21,164 – just 80 seats between them as they start their third day of the five day challenge.

Shearer beat Savage to the half-way mark today as they continue their challenge, which will see the pair frantically race to be the first to sit on half the seats at Wembley connected by EE - a brutal 45,000 seats each. But with their bodies paying the price for their speedy progress in their first 48 hours, have they peaked too early?

After two days of hardcore squatting and sliding, the ex-professional Footballers are in absolute agony as they push their aching bodies to take on another day of their punishing task. With Alan crossing the half-way mark at 9.35am this morning, Shearer remains in the lead – with the first stats of the day revealing a massive 526 seats complete so far today, with Robbie picking up the rear at 445 covered.

However, even the stairs down to the boys’ start positions for the day proved a massive challenge this morning, with Alan and Robbie left so sore from the continuous strain on their muscles that every step seemed a challenge of its own.

Speaking before the challenge this morning about his sore body, Alan said: “Where do we start? Thighs, back, ankle, hips, shoulders, arms, everything - because you’re using every part of your body to shift along the seats. I’m using muscles I’ve never used in my life! I can hardly walk this morning. It’s just put it into perspective – we’re not even halfway yet.”

After feeling pepped up by a visit from McBusted’s Harry Judd and Sir Steve Redgrave during day two, the boys are finding new ways to motivate themselves – with Alan fuelling himself with jelly babies and Robbie craving a muscle-soothing ice bath. There’s no rest for the lads yet though, as although they’ve got two tiers down, there’s another three torturous tiers to go before the challenge is complete.

As the pair prepared to start their session this morning, Robbie said: “My bottom is horrendous, we’ve done 20,000 seats each at Wembley Stadium. Red seat after red seat - mentally it’s so draining and physically I’ve got to say it’s so, so hard. People who have been here when it’s empty can realise the vast nature of the size of it, I can’t say how terrible it is. I can’t even get down the stairs!”

The former thoroughbreds of the football world have completed the top tier and luxury boxes of Wembley Stadium, with another three tiers to complete before their mammoth task is over. At the close of the Battle of the Backsides on day two, Alan Shearer reigned supreme with a massive 20,718 seats complete, with Robbie Savage trailing slightly at 20,699 – just 19 seats behind.

To support them in this brutal task, as well as to be in with the chance to win some amazing prizes, the public can enter the Battle of the Backsides competition at www.sportrelief.com/backsides. Each competition entry costs £5, and the whole £5 goes to Sport Relief. There are some incredible prizes up for grabs including tickets to see England play at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, two centre court tickets to Wimbledon 2nd round or tickets to One Direction on their UK tour.

Alan and Robbie are putting their bottoms on the line in the hope of raising a lifesaving sum of cash to help change the lives of vulnerable people in the UK and around the world.

Fans can follow all the action from Wembley over the five days with regular updates on BBC Radio 5 live and bbc.co.uk/backsides.